wfn.org | Presbyterians gear up for meeting on global racism

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Note #6531 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

22-May-2001
01174

Presbyterians gear up for meeting on global racism

South Africa conference will cast spotlight on "bigotry, hatred, prejudice"

by John Filiatreau

NEW YORK - About 60 Presbyterians met last week at their denomination's
United Nations offices here for a three-day meeting on "The Challenge of
Global Racism."

	The first purpose of the gathering was to help Presbyterian Church (USA)
officials and members prepare to join with thousands of other people from
around the globe in the UN's  World Conference Against Racism, Racial
Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, scheduled for September
in Durban, South Africa.

	As its name suggests, the World Conference will not only address racism in
the United States and elsewhere in the world, but also religious
intolerance, bias against refugees and migrant workers, the "double
discrimination" suffered by women of color, and the abuse and displacement
of indigenous peoples around the world, including Native Americans.

	"Bigotry, hatred, prejudice - these are the ugly symptoms of a sickness
humanity has always and everywhere suffered," UN Secretary-General Kofi
Annan is quoted in a brochure about the world conference. "Racism can, will
and must be defeated."

	The fight against racism has always been a high priority of the UN, but the
international agency says its dream of justice and equality is "only half
fulfilled."

	"As technology brings the peoples of the world closer together and
political barriers tumble, racial discrimination, xenophobia and other forms
of intolerance continue to ravage our societies," the UN says in its
Conference Against Racism brochure. "In recent years, the world has coined a
new term, 'ethnic cleansing,' to describe the re-emergence of an age-old
phenomenon. There is persistent ... discrimination against minorities,
indigenous peoples and migrants. ... Even slavery ... continues to be
practiced in certain parts of the world and remains a grave problem."

	In worship, the conference participants prayed: "We gather seeking an end
to the racism that breaks our spirits, the racism that hurts the body of
Christ. ... You are the light of the world. Shine into the empty places and
expose the sins of greed, oppression, hate and violence."

	The UN community is nearing the end of its Third Decade to Combat Racism
and Racial Discrimination (1994-2003). It has designated this year as the
International Year of Mobilization Against Racism, Racial Discrimination,
Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.

	Most of the preparatory work for the World Conference is taking place in
Geneva, Switzerland, the site of the Office of the (UN) High Commissioner
for Human Rights. The current commissioner, Mary Robinson, has been
appointed Secretary-General of the World Conference.

	Preparations have been under way for some time. The conference agenda and
the first draft of the document that will emerge from the meeting began
coming together during a May 2000 meeting of the UN Preparatory Committee.
That group is meeting in Geneva now to make final preparations.

	The September conference in South Africa will be the third World Conference
to Combat Racism. The first two, in 1978 and 1983, were held in Geneva.
Conference planners chose South Africa as the site of this year's meeting in
a tribute to that country's recent repudiation of its system of apartheid,
which deprived black South Africans of their civil and human rights for more
than a century.
Other pre-conference activities have included meetings of an Intersessional
Open-Ended Working Group charged with drafting the conference declaration
and suggesting a program of action; Regional Expert Seminars on ways of
bringing global attention to regional issues; Regional Preparatory Meetings,
in which government representatives prepare for the upcoming conference (the
United States took part in the Preparatory Conference for the Americas); and
a series of regional NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) meetings, in which
representatives of private agencies prepared to take part in the conference.

	The stated purposes of the UN seminar last week were to "help participants
understand the global dimensions of racism and intolerance" and to have them
"consider how they, as individuals and church communities, can combat the
effects of racism and intolerance at home and around the world."

	Helen Locklear, director of the Racial-Ethnic program area, told the
participants that the PC(USA) has always opposed racism in its "social,
economic and political policies and practices," and at one time even "paid
the salaries of civil-rights workers on the staff of the Rev. Martin Luther
King." But she added, "The fact that we're 95 percent white indicates that
we still have a lot to do."

	In the church and elsewhere, Locklear said, commitment to racial equality
begins to weaken when people in power are asked to share their power with
people who have none. The prevalent attitude in the church and in society,
she said, can be summed up this way: "I want everyone to have what I have -
as long as I don't have to give up any of the power and privilege that I
have."

	Locklear said working for racial justice "may be the mandate assigned to a
few of us, but it must be the work of the entire church." She said she'd
like to see "an anti-racism curriculum for children," and complained that
the PC(USA) "hasn't done anything with our (racial/ethnic) colleges." She
said the denomination must be pressured to commit "money, resources, people,
time and effort" to the fight against racism, which she said "threatens the
very survival of our planet."

	Clarence Dias, president of the International Center for Law and
Development, pointed out that "communities of faith are also communities
with faith," urging his listeners to cling to the belief that they can make
a difference. He said racism is "constructed" by people and therefore can be
"deconstructed" by well-meaning people.

	Dias said racism "is exploding around the world today," and is supported by
the international economy and globalization, which have created "a growing
global ghetto, a global sweatshop, a megaslum, a global captive casino" in
which people are increasingly involved in "conflicts over scarce resources."

	Dias said the current world culture "promotes selfishness, banditry and
greed," and the global economy runs on the blood of third-world workers.
About a half-century ago, he said, the richest countries in the world had
about 10 times as much wealth as the poorest countries; but at the turn of
the millennium the ratio was 1,000-1 and growing. And where the gap is the
widest, Dias said, life expectancy is lowest.

	Elsa Stamatopolou, deputy to the director in the office of the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights, said the world conference must begin with "a
bold acknowledgement of the problem" of racism, which she said "tops the
list of 21st-century issues." She said she hopes the conference will issue
"a solid, credible declaration, as well as a plan of action ... a document
that all people can recognize as their own."

	"A lot's at stake politically" in the South Africa conference, another
speaker said. "Durban can't fail."

	The Durban conference is being organized as a high-profile, highly
influential world meeting, like the World Conference of Women in Beijing,
China, in 1995.

	Hamid Abdeljabar, chief of the Middle East Radio Unit, TV and Radio
Service, UN Department of Public Information, said racism is a problem on a
global scale: "If there is a minority, there is discrimination."

	"All religions believe in fairness and justice," he said. "None of them
calls for evil. None of them tells its believers to kill or steal or do bad
things. But religious intolerance exists in every country."

	Abdeljabar said training of children to resist and oppose racism and other
intolerance must "start at an early, early stage."
Myriam Dessables, a project manager in the UN Department of Public
Information, said political and economic refugees are victimized everywhere
by discrimination.

	"Disliking where someone is from - how stupid!" Dessables said, pointing
out that "one does not always choose to leave home, either."

	She said a sense of alienation "is part of being a migrant" and a scourge
on "people who left their countries because they had to."

	Dessables said migrant children, who don't share their parents' homelands,
are obliged "to be always the foreigner, at home and at school. She said 50
million people worldwide have been forced to leave their home countries and
struggle to survive in teeming refugee camps, unserved by "governments that
do not necessarily have the means to take care of their own people," and
always facing the threat of expulsion.

	A discussion of the controversial issue of the payment of reparations to
victims of racism and other discrimination included a consideration not only
of direct monetary payments to such people and their successors, but also of
more indirect means, such as access to capital, credit and other banking
services; forgiveness of outstanding debt; conveyance of title to property;
and improved housing and transit systems. Participants agreed that
reparations are not a radical idea, and "making amends" for past wrongs is a
concept advocated in all religions.

	Participants also enjoyed an afternoon tour of the UN headquarters
building.

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